Today Marks the Anniversary of the Most Singularly Disastrous Supreme Court Decision of My Lifetime

Happy Anthony Kennedy Day! Are you all celebrating in the traditional manner—buying your loved one a legislator?

Yes, it was six years ago today that ol' Weathervane descended from Gumdrop Tower where he lives in Sparkleponyland to bless our politics with those magic words: "…independent expenditures do not lead to, or create the appearance of, quid pro quo corruption." And there was great rejoicing among all the happy sprites, who knew that all would be sunshine and rainbows and that there would be no more graft anywhere in the soft green meadows where they ran and played.

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This is the most singularly disastrous Supreme Court decision of my lifetime, including Bush v. Gore. It has legalized influence-peddling at every level of government. Just this past fall, a friend of mine, who had been an alderman in my city for years, lost an election to a blow-in who spent $19,000. It only gets worse as you go up the political food chain and the stakes get higher. It has led to the ability of nonsense candidates to maintain themselves in campaigns long after the actual voters have demonstrated that they don't want any part of them anymore. It has led to politicians accountable only to the dark money that has become their life's blood. It has led directly to the latest atrocity being perpetrated in the Koch Industries subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin, where Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired to manage the place, now might do away with civil service protections to guarantee that his misrule will perpetuate itself by salting its hacks throughout the state government forever.

The bill applies to the state's civil service, nearly all state workers except the University of Wisconsin System and the Wisconsin National Guard. It replaces state civil service exams with a resume-based hiring system. It also would determine layoffs from state agencies based on job performance instead of seniority, extend probationary time for new hires, outline specific offenses for which employees can be immediately terminated and centralize the hiring process within the Department of Administration. The bill was a priority for passage in 2016 for Walker and his GOP legislative allies. They contend the state's century-old civil service system is cumbersome, outdated and ripe for reform.

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Scott Walker's entire career is pockmarked with penny-ante corruption in office that has sent more than a few of his former aides to jail, and that nearly ensnared him, until a partisan judge and his pet legislature did away with the mechanism by which he was being investigated. But, as Anthony Kennedy assured us, this does not lead to the appearance of quid pro quo corruption. Scott Walker—and hundreds more like him—are Anthony Kennedy's gift to Wisconsin and the nation.